Absorbent garments, particularly disposable pant-type absorbent garments include a pant-shaped chassis structure and an absorbent core component permanently integrated with the chassis. A major objective when designing pant garments is to make them resemble ordinary underwear as closely as possible. For this reason, the garment chassis usually comprises a material that is elastically stretchable, at least in the areas intended to be applied over the wearer's hips. In addition, absorbent garments such as pant diapers, sanitary pants and incontinence pants are designed to fit comfortably and snugly about the wearer and it is desired that they have a minimum of seams and joins that could cause discomfort such as chafing.
Further, absorbent pant-type garments should be capable of being pulled up and down over the hips of the wearer in the manner of a pair of underpants to allow the wearer or caregiver to easily remove a soiled garment and to replace it with a new clean garment. A particular problem with pant-type garments is that seams and joins running in a direction parallel to the waist edge of the garment may rupture when the user or a care-giver is pulling on the garment. In order to avoid this problem, it has to be ascertained that joins between different parts of the disposable pant-type garment are sufficiently strong to withstand the forces arising during normal use. However, strong seals and joins are commonly obtained by increasing the bonding area and/or by using more binder materials or severe binding conditions, resulting in stiffer and more uncomfortable joins.
A further requirement of particular importance for disposable garments is that the garment can be produced by an economically efficient process, involving as few process steps and components as possible.
Hence, there exists a continuing need for an improved process of making a pant-type absorbent garment having a chassis including one or more elastically stretchable components.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a simple and economic method for producing an absorbent garment such as an elastically stretchable pant-type garment.